Teachers’ body flays reforms in education

‘The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is pushing its new regulation in a hurry without larger national consultations’, alleged IATE president Professor Sahoo. The entire teacher education reform in the country is being monitored by the Supreme Court through the Justice Verma Commission (JVC) reports and NCTE was to submit the report to the apex court in 2013, though it sought extension till June 2014 to complete the process. 

There is nationwide protest against this hush-hush for approval of the regulation by its council and final gazette notification. 

Prof Sahoo complains that ‘the ultra Leftists who dominate the NCTE council knowingly delayed the preparation of the new regulation so that there will be hardly any time for national deliberation before it is legally vetted and notified by June end as per top court order’. 

Though he appreciated that the regulation has been put at NCTE website for comments of all stake holders, he objects that the council has given only ten days for this, and the teacher educators in the country are protesting against its elimination of the requirement of a teacher educator degree itself to be a teacher educator. 

The NCTE, in its previous status since 1973, was an advisory body for the Central and state governments on all matters pertaining to teacher education, with its secretariat in the Department of Teacher Education of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).